1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to knee braces, and in particular, osteoarthritis (OA) knee braces and other types of braces which provide protection and support for injuries and instabilities.
2. Description of Prior Art
A prior concept initiated by Gregg Berretta, CPO, that he called a “T-Force Strap” involved adding of a single pad pivotally attached above the condyle pad on commercially available osteoarthritis (OA) knee braces and that could be tightened against the wearer's leg by a strap connect to the pad. The purpose of the “T-Force Strap” was to diffuse the corrective forces produced by the brace so that all of the pressure would not be concentrated on the condyle of the wearer so as to make the brace more comfortable and resulted in higher patient compliance.
Hoffmeir et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,311,687 shows another arrangement designed to distribute loads over a large portion of the wearer's leg and otherwise improve fitting of an osteoarthritis brace on a wearer's leg. In this case, a semi-rigid cuff is attached in the middle of a rigid thigh cuff and as this inner cuff is tightened around the thigh, it moves away from the rigid cuff and is intended to bear reaction forces created by a medial/lateral force applied to the wearer's knee by the hinge of the brace.
Stearns U.S. Pat. No. 6,740,054 discloses an orthopedic brace assembly having a suspension assembly with a pair of cantilevered arms. Each of the arms is connected to a respective one of the femoral arms of the brace just above the hinge and extends toward the other of the cantilevered arms. A dome-shaped pad is mounted on the free ends of the cantilevered arms and the free ends are connected by an elastic strap. The stated purposes of the elastically-connected cantilevered arms being to control the tibial by providing translational and rotational stability otherwise provided by a normally functioning anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and to limit migration of the brace during knee articulation.
No known knee brace has a single assembly that is able to both improve the comfort of the brace by distributing the corrective forces produced by the brace and at the same time is able to produce a suspension effect that inhibits migration of the brace during flexion and extension of the leg wearing the brace.